monastery of Cîteaux and thus set in motion the reform movement that produced the
Cistercian order. Harding was subprior and prior before being elected the third abbot of
Cîteaux in 1109. He was abbot when Bernard of Clairvaux and a group of his followers
joined the community. He was the author of the early text of the Carta caritatis (ca.
1119), which formed the basic constitution of the order and established the General
Chapter and the pattern of yearly visitations of daughter houses by the abbot of the
mother house. The Exordium parvum, a brief history of the founding of Cîteaux, is
probably by Stephen. He produced, with the assistance of a converted Jew whom he
consulted, a revision of the Vulgate translation of the Bible that sought to be more
faithful to the Hebrew text.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX; CARTA CARITATIS; CISTERCIAN
ORDER; ROBERT OF MOLESME]
Douglas, David C., and W.Greenaway, eds. English Historical Documents. London: Eyre and
Spottiswoode, 1953, Vol. 2, pp. 687–91. [Translation of Carta caritatis.]
STEPHEN LANGTON
(ca. 1155–1228). Stephen Langton and his brother Simon were two of the most
influential figures of their age. Stephen was born in Langton-by-Wragby, near Lincoln.
His early education was probably at the Lincoln cathedral school, but ca. 1170 he moved
to Paris and studied and then taught, for about twenty years, around the Petit Pont,
probably at the school of Peter the Chanter. Like the Chanter and Peter Comestor,
Stephen was interested in practical moral questions and in biblical studies. He was at his
best when discussing, in a common-sense way, the prob-lems of everyday life. He sided
most definitely with the active rather than the contemplative life.
Stephen’s fame came not from his theology but from his preaching and biblical
commentaries. He was known as Linguatonans—thundering tongue. About 500 of his
sermons survive. He is credited with the division of the Bible into more or less its present
chapters; he was well known for his corrections to the text; and he commented on most of
the Bible according to both the literal and spiritual senses. His commentaries circulated in
a number of forms, some with only one sense, some with both. He also wrote
commentaries on Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica.
While in Paris, he was a close friend of Lothar of Segni, who as Pope Innocent III
made him a cardinal in 1206. In December 1206, Stephen was elected archbishop of
Canterbury; but owing to disputes over his election between King John Lackland and the
Canterbury chapter (backed by Innocent III), he was not allowed to take his seat until
- Until then, he lived in exile at the abbey of Pontigny.
Stephen was closely involved with Magna Carta and may have been its author. He
worked hard to maintain the role of mediator during the events that led to 1215 and saw
the charter not as innovation but as restatements of the rights and duties of kingship.
Innocent read Langton’s mediation with the barons as an indirect challenge to himself
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